Australia's largest defense exporter says it hasn't responded to an extortion attempt after ship design schematics were stolen by a hacker.

Austal, which is based in Henderson, Western Australia, is one of the country's largest shipbuilders; it has built vessels for the U.S. Navy.

The company, which is listed on Australia's ASX stock exchange, announced the breach late Thursday. The announcement came just a day after a security researcher in France posted screenshots on Twitter of the purported stolen data.

Austal says the material is neither sensitive nor classified and that it has taken steps to secure its data systems.

"The data breach has had no impact on Austal's ongoing operations," the company says. "Austal's business in the United States is unaffected by this issue, as the computer systems are not linked."

A spokesman for Austal contacted on Friday says he couldn't offer further information on the incident.

The breach exposed ship design drawings that are distributed to customers, fabrication subcontractors and suppliers, Austal says. It also exposed "some staff email addresses and mobile phone numbers." Those individuals have been informed as well as a "small number" of other stakeholders directly impacted by the breach, the company reports.

Austal has contacted the Australian Cyber Security Center and the Australian Federal Police. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, which enforces the country's data protection regulations "will be involved as required," Austal says.

The.Joker

A hacker going by the nickname "the.joker" advertised the material for sale on an underground forum earlier this week. Xylitol, a well-known French security researcher, posted screenshots of the the.joker's postings on Oct. 31, a day before Austal's announcement.

The.joker claims to have dumped data from Austal's network PCs about a month prior. The zip file, which consisted of drawings and designs, is 75GB in size, the.joker claims.

Some of the sample images the.joker included in a forum posting were still live on Friday and indicated the material was posted there five days prior.

The material was being offered for 1 bitcoin, or about $6,300. That figure is likely far lower than whatever figure was presented to the company as a ransom.

Don't Pay Ransoms

Companies are increasingly being subjected to ransoms by hackers after their networks have been breached. Ransoms put companies in tough positions: risk public exposure of potentially embarrassing data, or risk paying a ransom and still face a chance the data could be released anyway.

Security experts and law enforcement generally advise against paying ransoms, even after incidents of file-encrypting malware. But some companies have viewed the situation as either a cost of doing business or a shorter route to recovery.

About the Author

Kirk is a veteran journalist who has reported from more than a dozen countries. Based in Sydney, he is Managing Editor for Security and Technology for Information Security Media Group. Prior to ISMG, he worked from London and Sydney covering computer security and privacy for International Data Group. Further back, he covered military affairs from Seoul, South Korea, and general assignment news for his hometown paper in Illinois.

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